1. Another busy week, indeed.

On the heels of five public commitments following Clemson's major official visit gathering, we closed our last edition by foreshadowing another compelling week ahead.

Four more commitments jumped in the boat, pushing the Tigers' total to 12 overall in light of Miami (Fla.) Edison four-star receiver Nathaniel Joseph's anticipated defection.

In two weeks, Clemson has gone from having the No. 28-ranked recruiting class in the Rivals.com team rankings to No. 4 overall.

Again, only so much should be derived from team rankings at this juncture; everyone needs to play the full 18-hole course before we get a more accurate sense of the order.

But what does have some stickiness is that the Tigers have the second-most commitments rated four-star or higher in the country (10) behind only Notre Dame's 13.

And their average star rating of 3.83 stands behind only Alabama, USC, Notre Dame (4.0) Ohio State (3.90) and Texas (3.86) among schools with more than two commitments.

That's not the dossier of a program fading into mediocrity or irrelevance.

The Tigers aren't done yet by any means. By our figures, they have half the class to go, with quite a few on the hook for decisions in the near future.

Yet as we expressed at the turn of the calendar year, Clemson needed to make a statement with this class.

Dabo Swinney and staff have fired that shot this month.